If you have ever wandered into the darker corners of horror and found yourself staring at something you probably shouldn’t, there is a good chance Clive Barker had something to do with it. The man behind Books of Blood, The Hellbound Heart, Weaveworld and Imajica has spent decades pushing horror into places that most writers would never dare explore, and now Barker is opening the doors to another nightmare.
“LIBRARY OF THE DEAD” is a new three-book anthology project from Barker, described as a spiritual successor to his legendary Books of Blood collection, and the project is now being offered exclusively through Kickstarter.
The year long publishing event will unfold across three hardcover volumes throughout 2027, with the collection beginning with FEAR ETERNAL, continuing with PYRES OF BEDLAM and concluding with DARK DESCENTS. The books will feature new original stories alongside rare and harder to find short fiction and poetry from Barker, giving longtime readers another opportunity to dive into the strange worlds that have made his work so influential.
And this isn’t simply a new set of horror books with Barker’s name slapped on the cover.
The project is being positioned as a return to the kind of raw, uncompromising storytelling that helped establish Barker as one of the most important voices in modern horror. When Books of Blood arrived in the 1980s, Barker brought a different kind of darkness to the genre, one where horror could be grotesque, beautiful, sensual and deeply unsettling all at once. His work eventually expanded beyond literature into film, art and gaming, with HELLRAISER and the creation of Pinhead becoming an undeniable part of horror history.
Now Barker is returning to the page with new material.
The three LIBRARY OF THE DEAD volumes will be available through various Kickstarter tiers, including digital editions, audiobooks, standard hardcovers and leather bound editions. Collectors will also have the opportunity to grab numbered, signed and lettered editions.
There is plenty here for collectors beyond the books themselves.
Certain backer tiers include a companion portfolio featuring nine fine art prints of original artwork created by Barker specifically for the project. Another reward is a limited edition polystone Book Coffin, inspired by Barker’s artwork and designed to house the collection.
Then there is the return of Books of Blood itself.
A special Remastered Edition will collect all six original volumes into a massive two-volume hardcover omnibus. The edition will feature a special leather format, deckled pages, a new foreword and new interior illustrations, with the books presented in a format created specifically for this Kickstarter campaign. Stories including The Midnight Meat Train, Rawhead Rex, The Forbidden and The Last Illusion will once again be brought together in the collection that helped launch Barker’s literary career.
The remastered set also includes a printed certificate of authenticity and, according to the campaign, will not be offered outside of the Kickstarter.
There is even a mystery hidden inside the new trilogy.
Backers will be given clues woven throughout LIBRARY OF THE DEAD, with readers who manage to solve the mystery unlocking a special item that cannot be purchased. The reward will eventually be revealed during an invitation only streaming event with Barker, with the item provided to eligible backers in either physical or digital form depending on their reward tier.
The first two volumes, FEAR ETERNAL and PYRES OF BEDLAM, are already finished manuscripts and are currently being edited for printing, meaning this isn’t simply a campaign asking readers to fund an idea that may eventually become a book.
For horror fans who have followed Barker’s work through the decades, LIBRARY OF THE DEAD represents something particularly exciting: new fiction from the mind that helped redefine what horror could be on the printed page and we’re all in for it.